forward mentions that Sci-fi was a foreign concept in mainstream China until really the early 2000s bc even the notion of future wasn’t part of day to day like it is for westerners. Milton's God mentions something similar about the concept of the past in India. Interesting takes on Eastern literary tradition (though certainly not limited to lit).

I think the mechanics from these stories, especially the ones which hold water, are perfected in 3BP.

The Village Teacher: 6.5

teach gets cancer but redeems himself by teaching students. That they know Newton’s laws when proved by interstellar carbon federation examiner saves the entire solar system from a Deaths End black hole bomb 

Time Migration: 6.5

overpopulation turns into human bonds but every time they defrost the future is unready for them. 180 yrs -> 11k years

Gene extension: 6.5

half of future life is cyber, people can pay huge sums (or steal) to become immortal. Ambiguity about who’s extended or not. GF breaks up with him to hibernate herself, alt immortality. False hope expressed diff that the future is always better

fire and the earth: 8

new coal mining tech proposal turns into a Chernobyl event. hardship. The titular novel “to hold up the sky” “act and do not think”

contraction: 6.5

universe contracts after 14b years of expansion. Time will flow backwards - giving Egan

Mirror: 7

investigation into corruption results in governmental assassinations. String theoretic / 11D computer unlocks capabilities of modeling every fundamental particle in the universe with ease uncovering many secrets. Reducing search space of input parameters to the super computer to model the universe to just the finite set of params which at some point intersect observable universe (NP-hard, but better than infinite I guess?). They find it and society is existentially threatened by the stagnant death of mistake -> mutation which is implicitly disallowed by omnisurveillance offered by the digital mirror. it’s just a sophon. After figuring out how to look into the future w/o stack overflow by looking far into the limit, it looks like society does surely explode itself

Ode to joy: alt history of the Sophon: 7

Massive but massless mirror appears above earth, Endeavor sends a guy to spacewalk through it. It’s just a field with no physical substance. Then the mirror speaks and announces itself to be a musician which proceeds to play a beautiful symphony via the stars and a beat created by detonating proxima centauri and modulating the EM waves into physical vibrations. Lol that the musician broadcasts humanity’s response in the form of Ode to Joy out to the rest of the universe which is certain death in the other setting this mechanic is used. Kinda lame that the beauty of this occurrence resolves the extension of the UN which had met to dissolve. 

selective barrage jamming: 7

fighting NATO via modern warfare from russian perspective is funny and uniquely Chinese. blacking out all tech bc the west has an advantage to meet them basically on horseback. "Einstein made little progress in his later work because he got too involved in politics. I won’t make the same mistake” maybe true but lmfao. Father/Son beef about war vs science, son offers to shoot a missile in to the sun to amplify EM jamming efforts in russia. Published in 2000

Sea of Dreams: 6

Seveneves but with aliens

Cloud of Poems: 6.5

human presented by the devourer (limited grasp of 4d) species to a god of the solar system (master of all 11). Puny human pleases the esteemed god with his poetry demonstrating grasp of a different dimension. God wants to store all the possible poems, in atoms, but there’s not enough, so the god is going to smelt the sun down (sad for the devourer) for more matter.

The thinker: 6.5

2 peeps link up every 17yrs and share special bond

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